Page 6 - Asoex Sustainability Report

3. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Workers
ASOEX is part of the Permanent Taskforce on Social and Labour Issues of the Fruit Industry (“Fruit Taskforce”) formed in 2008 due to the interest of exporters and 14 associations of farmers and workers (both permanent and temporary), plus Fedefruta representing fruit growers. This instance of honest two tiered dialogue has succeeded in implementing various measures for the bene t of fruit workers, in agreement with the relevant authorities, including, among others: nursey allowance payments
for women workers during their work days, end of work severance payments within terms not exceeding 10 days, agreements for the full compliance of all labour regulations by employers with the corresponding government supervisory bodies, etc.
agreements, and temporary worker bene ts and training. This bill is under consideration by the Chilean parliamentary legislature.
Additionally, Chilean labour laws are very modern and consistent with all the standards of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO), having regulated workers’ rights, the prohibition of all kinds of discrimination, accident prevention, working hours, the prohibition of child labour, hygiene conditions and workers’ resting and eating facilities since 1968, with successive updates.
The existing Chilean national occupational accident and disease prevention system works both in rural and urban areas. As do companies from all industries, fruit growers contribute to support this system, which is based on preventing occupational risks. Hence, the current annual rate of accidents in the agricultural industry is less than 4%, and on the basis of historical data, it is expected to be considerably reduced by 2020.
There are also of cial regulations for foreign workers residing in Chile to be hired as permanent or temporary employees in the agricultural industry, thus assuring that they are entitled to all applicable social and worker bene ts.
In order to obtain labour conditions, worker bene ts, training, etc., in 2010, the Fruit Taskforce submitted to the Chilean government a proposed bill for the acknowledgement of temporary worker rights, collective bargaining systems for them on the basis of bilateral
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PERMANENT TASKFORCE on social and labour issues
WORKER TRAINING
ASOEX and the Chilean Federation of Fruit Growers (Fedefruta) have implemented organizations exclusively committed to training agricultural workers through entities recognized by the government (OTIC). Thus, ASOEX has trained over 264,000 workers in the last 15 years to 2016. The main training areas have been: food safety, pesticide handling and application, eld work (pruning, thinning, irrigation, etc.), and produce packing and cold storage (harvest, quality control, sorting in packing lines, traceability, etc.).
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